This invention relates to controlling the movement of industrial apparatus such as a coke transfer hot car during the time while it is receiving hot coke from a coke oven in a synchronous relation with the movement of a pusher ram arranged at the other side of the coke oven to push the hot coke from the oven chamber. More particularly, the present invention relates to providing a control system based on a position dependent relationship which is established between position movements of such a coke transfer car at one side of a coke oven chamber with the position movements of such a coke pushing ram moving through the same coke oven chamber from the opposite side.
This invention is directed to the particular aspect in the operation of coke ovens involving the hot coke pushing and catching operations which are performed after the coking process has been completed, and is required, to empty a coke oven chamber, after which it receives another coal charge for the continued production of coke. Coke ovens are typically made up of a battery of oven chambers arranged in a side-by-side manner for the destructive distillation of coal. When the coking process has been completed in a given oven chamber, the doors fastened at opposite ends of the oven chamber are removed and a coke pushing ram is positioned, by a carriage movable along rails, so that the ram is aligned with the oven chamber for pushing the coke into a coke transfer car at the opposite coke side where there is typically employed a coke guide to direct the coke from the oven chamber into the hot car.
Attempts in the past have been made to control the movement of the coke transfer car while coke is being loaded therein so as to avoid the spillage of coke onto the area surrounding the transfer car. Additionally it is desirable to collect the coke at a substantially even depth in the coke transfer car so that at the end of the pushing operation, more uniform quenching of the hot coke can be achieved after transferring the car to a coke quenching station. At the quenching station, if the car contains irregular and radically changing depths of hot coke, far greater quantities of water are needed to quench the coke. Also, shallow depths of coke in the car become drenched which is undesirable.
In the past, control of the movements of the pusher ram and the hot coke transfer car during the actual coke pushing operations, sought to maintain a constant traverse speed of the coke transfer car, and cause the ram to move through the oven chamber in a controlled manner; e.g., at a constant speed, to push the coke into the coke transfer car. Should the ram stick or some other condition occur affecting the motion of the ram, the coke will not be pushed on the basis of a constant ram speed from the oven chamber during these periods of time, and consequently the transfer car will not receive coke as a uniform layer while the car continues to move at a constant speed. The coke transfer car may actually be moved beyond a point where it can receive coke from this oven chamber if some unforeseen critical delays to the movement of the pusher ram are encountered.
The present invention, therefore, seeks to provide an improved control based upon a position dependent and synchronous movement relation between the coke pushing ram and a hot coke transfer car so as to provide a layer of coke with a substantially uniform depth in the transfer car, and to avoid unnecessary spillage of coke.